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Saturday, August 16, 2003

Long Day

Music: Sinead O'Connor singing Elton John/Bernie Taupin's "Sacrifice"

Mood: Placid but a little guilty...

This has been one of those days where it seems impossible that this morning was just this morning, know what I mean? First off, T's alarm didn't go off. He's supposed to be at a breakfast meeting he goes to every Saturday at 7:30; this morning he woke me up at by saying "uh oh" as he looked at our clock-radio, which said 7:35. So I bustled out of bed to mix the juice he'd been assigned to bring, while he got dressed. C woke up, saw him, hopped out of bed, and there went my chances of getting back to sleep [g].

After T got back from his meeting, we drove him to (you guessed it) the place where he's working on the derby car. (note: the link doesn't take you to HIS derby car, although those of you who know us know that he has a web page about that. It just takes you to a generic demo derby association site that will explain what the heck a destruction derby is, in case you're not rednecky enough to know already ;-) ). Then we headed straight down to Smallish Shopping City, to do some necessary grocery shopping. I bought twelve more boxes of crayons at Wal-Mart. Who can pass up 14c a box? You should be proud that I did not get twice that many! I also bought pull-ups (someday C will be dry at night and then we will no longer have to buy those... SOMEday...) and half a dozen little tank-top girls' shirts which Wal-Mart had marked down to $1 apiece. They're not my favorite style of shirt -- even on a 3-year-old they manage to look vaguely trampy, although I don't think they're meant to -- but they'll do her for wearing around the house. That child goes through more laundry than any 3 other kids.

We ate lunch at Hometown Buffet, which we all like for different reasons. I like it because the kids get their food right away, and there's enough variety that we can get a small portion of each of a dozen things. Also, it has a fair salad bar, and often, I can get meatloaf, which I never have at home because T hates it. The kids like it because they can get all the macaroni and cheese they can eat, and all the chocolate milk they can pour in on top of that. After a quick trip through the grocery store we came home. I got some delectable-looking pork sirloin chops which are simmering away in some 98%-fat-free cream-of-mushroom soup as I type this.

Drat. I just realized that the watermelon is still in the trunk.

I have been virtuously folding laundry. I hate, hate, hate this task. I don't mind washing it and drying it (although sometimes I cheat and use the dryer rather than the clothesline in summer, if I don't feel like going out in the blazing heat), but I always end up with every one of my laundry baskets in use, holding heaps of clean unfolded laundry. Then I put in a movie and sit there and fold it all while I watch; unless I want to waste my alone-after-kids-are-asleep time in folding laundry rather than reading, generally I have to pick a movie that is at least kid-friendly (ie no graphic sex or profanity and nothing scary). Today the movie was The Man From Snowy River, chosen as a surprise for me by LT, who loves to surprise people. We had a funny little incident as it was beginning. C, who is 3, was watching the opening credits. "Kirk Douglas" showed up on the screen; she said, "K!" I was a little surprised she knew K; then "Jack Thompson" went up on the screen, and she called out, "Jack!" WHO HAS BEEN TEACHING MY CHILD? I wondered. I mean, we talk about letters in an abstract way; she's just barely getting to the part where she learns they all have sounds that go along with them. I rewound the tape, paused it, and had her go up and point to where it said Jack. She pointed in just the right place, of course, and as I was about to call Mensa or something, I asked her who had taught her that. "Grandpa! See! The thing with the line across the top and the line down and the curl at the bottom, that's a JACK!" O-K, sanity restored, she was talking about playing cards. Still and all, I was pleased she remembered that, and she could tell me most of the other letters that were on the screen as well. (this also explains why she knew "K". Grandpa's teaching her to be quite a card shark apparently ;-).

I hadn't watched Snowy River in years. I *have* watched it as an adult, so I am not quite as infatuated with it as I was as a little girl. I remember going to a party at the house of one of my school friends; we had rented that movie, or maybe it was Return to Snowy River. Picture half a dozen preteen girls staring at the screen, and imagine our outcries and rewindings when the horse dies after the fall down the hill -- we were sure that the horse was REALLY dead and that those people who made that movie were pure murderers.

Diet-wise I have been baaaad today. I have got to get ahold of myself. NO SNACKS tomorrow, 1200 calories or DIE. Well, not really DIE, that's a bit strong. But today I have eaten a bowl of cheerios with milk, two Hostess donuts which T brought home from his breakfast meeting, a cautious assortment of bits of meat, some green beans, and a salad with lowfat dressing at Hometown Buffet, and, just now, a pork cutlet with a tiny bit of mushroom-soup-based sauce. Total about 2000 calories, which is well over my limit. After the children go to bed, I will attempt to force myself to put on my Reebok exercise video and do it. I'd also LOVE to go for a half-hour's brisk walk, but you can't do "brisk" with a 7 yo and a 3 yo, and I can't leave them behind at home. (must start getting up with T at 5 so that I can do a brisk walk while he gets ready for work).

LT (age 7) has been declaring since just after his last birthday, in the spring, that his next birthday will have a Star Wars theme. He is obsessed with Star Wars. He has the entire party planned out, minute by minute, and he's done a very good job. Maybe he's got a career as a party planner in his future, who knows. They're to play "Pin The Light Saber In Luke's Hand" among other games. We all think it's pretty cool that his first real obsession has been with Star Wars, because, of course, our generation was also nuts about the same movies at his age. (He has only seen the middle 3 episodes, with the exception of Episode 1 which he watched ages ago, when T rented it just after it came out on DVD). I particularly remember a set of Star Wars bedsheets my brother had; also, one Halloween (when I was in kindergarten, around the time of the release of The Empire Strikes Back), I dressed up as Princess Leia, and he was Darth Vader. Weren't WE cute. :)

Speaking of LT, he is now requesting that I vacate the computer chair and let him play one of his games. I'm lobbying for "Curious George Reads, Writes, and Spells"; he's hoping for "Monopoly".

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